Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Thursday he negotiated a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on an amendment allowing military veterans whose finances go into conservatorship to keep their firearms, a proposal Schumer previously called a “poison pill” to the Senate’s minibus appropriations bill.
Kennedy’s effort to get a vote on his amendment had held up the bill funding military construction and the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development.
Now, the Louisiana senator said he expects to get a vote on his proposal after he agreed to modify the language. As a result, Kennedy said he will let the long-delayed appropriations bill advance.
“I just left Chuck’s office. I think we got it worked out,” Kennedy told The Hill. “We’re going to hotline some new language. Frankly, I think it makes my amendment stronger. Now, not everyone’s going to be happy.”
Kennedy said the modifications to the amendment are being put on the Senate “hotline,” giving all senators a chance to review it prior to coming to the floor.
Kennedy said the agreement was between himself and Schumer.
“The original position was they wanted me to pull my amendment down and I said ‘no,’” he said.
But now that he has an agreement, Kennedy said he has “no plans to withhold consent to the minibus.”
Schumer got into an animated discussion with Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine) over the Kennedy amendment, which he called a “poison pill,” on the Senate floor Tuesday evening.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) were part of Tuesday’s floor discussion over how to break the impasse.
Kennedy said Wednesday that he was “blindsided” when Schumer denied him a vote on the gun rights-related amendment.
“They blindsided me. My amendment was submitted five weeks ago. Everybody looked at it, there were no objections,” he said. “All of a sudden a bunch of people on the Democratic side got upset with it.”
Kennedy added “right now, if you’re a veteran and you go to the VA and say I’m having trouble with my finances and I’d like your help and the VA places you in a conservatorship … your name automatically goes on the list and they take away your guns.”
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Kennedy cuts deal with Schumer on veterans’ gun rights amendment - The Hill
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